Stranger Things Season 5 Alternate Ending Brilliantly Redeems Eleven’s Fake Death Twist

If you figured Stranger Things would wrap everything up with a neat little bow in its final season, you must be new here. The finale straight-up blindsided a lot of fans, leaving them to wonder: 'Wait, did they just kill off Eleven? For real?' And to be honest, the internet has not calmed down since. But there's a twist—courtesy of a sneaky shot in the behind-the-scenes documentary, One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5.

The Big 'Is Eleven Actually Dead?' Debate

Let's get this out of the way: Yes, the show ends with Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven making what looks like The Big Sacrifice in the Upside Down as it self-destructs. No, we don't literally see her die. But it sure felt final... at least until the fandom went full conspiracy-theory on a freeze frame from the making-of doc.

Here's where things get interesting. In the doc, there's a whiteboard full of episode breakdowns and plot beats, and you can actually read parts of it. Turns out, the writers played around with a version where Hopper (David Harbour) is in on Eleven's plan to fake her demise. The whiteboard mentions stuff like:

• Hopper, Eleven, Kali, Murray, Max—prepping isolation tank
• Vecna shows up to haunt Hopper; Hopper smashes the tank
• Hopper knows about Kali and Eleven's plan
• Hopper and Eleven have an emotional fight; Kali overhears
• On the roof: Eleven is about to jump into a rift—'see you later'—no time to resolve
• Hopper tends to Kali; 'a new plan' starts
• And most tellingly, 'Upside Down destroyed, El is gone.' Not dead. Just gone.

That last line is the kicker. Gone, not dead. So, maybe Mike (Finn Wolfhard) wasn't entirely delusional for hoping she survived.

The Duffers: Indecision, Debates, and Double-Bluffs

Now let's talk about the creative chaos behind the scenes. According to the documentary, the Duffer brothers didn't actually nail down the script for the series finale before shooting started (I'm stressed just thinking about that). Their writers room basically became a battleground over Eleven's fate. One brother wanted the ending obvious, the other preferred: maybe she is, maybe she isn't.

'The whole episode has to feel like Eleven is about to kill herself,' Ross Duffer explained in the doc. 'But you have to keep messing with the audience—are we really doing this, or not?'

Matt Duffer, on the other side, was all about keeping things unpredictable: 'You think she's chosen to live... no wait, just kidding, maybe she hasn't.' It basically went back and forth until they agreed on one thing: Eleven can't just get a happy ending.

Ross summed it up: 'I always thought El represents magic. She has to leave—she has to be gone—for the others to move on.'

Why No Happy Ending for Eleven?

Throughout the show, Eleven has always wanted to be more than just the girl with nosebleeds and telekinesis. Honestly, if anyone deserved a fairy-tale ending, it's her. But the Duffers weren't having it.

In an interview with Netflix's Tudum (yes, they really call it that), Matt Duffer basically explained there were only two roads: the pitch-black one and the bright, hopeful one. Mike is ever the optimist and believes she survived, but the script never gave her a happy reunion with the group.

'There was never a version of the story where Eleven was just hanging out with the gang at the end. She's the magic of childhood, and for everyone to move on, the magic has to leave.' - Ross Duffer

Even assuming El is still alive, nobody gets to call or text her—too risky, apparently. So the gang is left hoping, and fans get to argue about it until the sun explodes.

Quick Rundown for Reference

Show: Stranger Things Season 5
Showrunners: Matt and Ross Duffer
Episodes: 8
Production Companies: 21 Laps Entertainment, Upside Down Pictures
Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
IMDb: 8.6/10

So, Did They Stick the Landing?

Love it or hate it, Stranger Things doubled down on the open ending. The only thing that's for sure: Eleven didn't get her Hogwarts epilogue. Whether she's dead, hiding out Multiverse-style, or just living off the grid somewhere, the creators want everyone arguing about it for years. Mission accomplished.

Stranger Things Season 5 and its making-of documentary are both available to stream on Netflix—unless you're still stuck in the Upside Down.